| 5 – Power |
Many athletes are strong but lack power.
Other athletes are powerful but lack explosive strength.
If an athlete is going to excel at sports they need to be able to build strength and then convert strength to explosive power.
Simply put, explosive power refers to an individual’s ability to exert a maximum amount of force in the shortest possible time.
So how does this apply to athletes and sports?
Here are a few examples of explosive power in sports…
A football lineman bursts off the line as the ball is hiked.
A baseball player blasts a long home run.
A soccer player goes from jogging down field then switches to full speed to chase down the ball.
A basketball player jumps for a rebound, changing direction and sprinting down the court.
A volleyball player jumping above the net to for a spike.
EVERY sport requires explosive power. That’s why every athlete needs it. It’s not enough to be strong or fast or conditioned.
This session will focus on:
– Getting Stronger
In order to move we need muscle. In order to move athletically we need to move faster. In order to move faster your muscles need to get stronger.
As an athlete you force your body to move in various ways. These different movement patterns are called “planes of motion”. There are 3 different planes of motion. Athletes need to get stronger in all 3 planes of motion in order to perform better on the field or court.
By selecting exercises that force your muscles to get stronger in different ways you lay the foundation of strength from which you can build explosive power. Just getting strong won’t necessarily build explosive power. Getting strong lays the groundwork.
– Use P.A.P. In Your Training
P.A.P. stands for “Post-Activation Potentiation”. It is a style of training that can make you more powerful, explosive and athletic… FAST!
It’s a fancy term for building explosive power by combining a strength exercise and a plyometric exercise in succession.
- One works your muscles as a strength move
- Which is immediately followed by a fast, speed-type exercise
By combining the right exercises, an athlete may recruit more muscle fibers. This will rapidly increase your ability to move better as an athlete.
An example of P.A.P. Training for building upper body explosive power:
- Perform a set of Towel Bench Presses with a barbell followed with Flying Med. Ball Pushups. The Towel Bench Press is a strength exercise. The Flying Med. Ball Pushups are a plyometric exercise which requires a burst of energy.
– Periodize Your Athlete Training
Just as you wouldn’t try to build a house without a foundation, you can’t build better athletes without laying down a foundation.
The foundation for athletes is Periodization Training: Establishing different phases of training that build upon each other.
Periodization training for athletes helps set up long-term athleticism and sports success.
An example of Periodization Training:
- Four weeks of circuit training for conditioning, followed by 4 weeks of muscle-building for injury-prevention, followed by 6 week of maximum strength training… and finally, 4 weeks of P.A.P. Training.